The murder of taxi driver Joe Markus: Part 4

Mike Richard

Saturday

Dec 16, 2017 at 8:53 AM

The words "first degree murder" along with the sentence of "death by electrocution" were too much to bear for the surly Louis Pasakinski who, accor­ding to newspaper reports, broke down and wept upon hearing the verdict.

Part 4 of a series of 4

The words “first degree murder” along with the sentence of “death by electrocution” were too much to bear for the surly Louis Pasakinski who, accor­ding to newspaper reports, broke down and wept upon hearing the verdict.

At the trial held in Worcester Superior Court on Feb. 3, 1928, the 12 men who formed the jury found Pasakinski guilty in the killing of taxicab operator Joseph Markus after his body was found in the woods near the Hubbardston-Templeton line.

It was reported that this was the first time a first-degree murder charge had been returned in a Worcester County court since 1914.

This is the fourth and final part in this series about the murder of Gardner taxi driver Joe Markus, a local crime that occurred on Nov. 28, 1927, 90 years ago.

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Defense attorney John H. Meagher took exception throughout the trial to rulings of the court on the admissibility of evidence and it was felt he would push for a new trial. However, when Judge David P. Dillon denied the motion for a new trial a little over a week later, Meagher indicated that the appeal would be taken to the Supreme Court.

Meagher argued that no evidence was given to the jury that there was deliberate premeditation on the part of Pasakinski to kill Markus. He also questioned whether little Nellie Genis – the 6-year-old goddaughter of Markus and the crime’s star witness – should have been allowed to testify “due to her tender years.”

District Attorney Charles B. Rugg countered that Pasakinski removed what money there was in Markus’ pockets “before his body had cooled,” giving evidence that robbery was the motive.

Pasakinski, who appeared in court for the appeal nine days after the verdict was read, was described as looking “pale” and “apparently has lost much weight,” during his time at the jail.

On Feb. 16, Meagher filed an appeal to the Supreme Court. Now began the wait to see whether the high court would hear the case of Pasakinski.

In the days that followed, the prisoner whiled away the hours at the Worcester Jail hoping to get word of his appeal.

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Suddenly, and almost incredulously, the sensational murder case climaxed in an even more sensational ending.

On a cold and frigid Feb. 20, 1928, Pasakinski was taken from his cell on an exercise walk shortly after lunch to the jail yard. He was accompanied by guard Frank Freeman.

After taking only a few steps, Pasakinski collapsed into a crumpled pile. It was determined that he was dead before he even hit the ground, the 20-year-old succumbing to a massive heart attack, according to Dr. Louis Cassels, the physician at the jail.

Despite the hardened exterior he tried to exhibit during the trial, the sentencing unquestionably took its toll on Pasakinski who – it was later learned – had suffered for several years from a heart ailment.

An autopsy later performed by Medical Examiner Frederick Baker showed an enlargement of the heart.

Because of Pasakinski’s sudden death, the sentence against the alleged killer was never carried out.

While no mention of a funeral for Pasakinski was ever made, it is believed he may have been buried in the family plot in St. John’s Cemetery where his mother, Kazimera Pazakinskeni, was buried in 1925. Hers is the only name on the worn gravestone.

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The final chapter of the Joe Markus murder case occurred on a summer evening in August 1941 when a young Gardner girl made an unusual discovery while fishing with her parents at Stony Bridge Pond off Burnshirt Road in Templeton.

As Laura Cote dropped her line into the pond, the barbed hook moved slowly over the bottom of the pond in search of a horned pout or perch. Suddenly, the hook caught inside of the muzzle of a gun and she lifted the rust-encrusted and mud-covered Army automatic to the surface.

At the urging of her parents, the young girl took it to the home of Gardner Chief of Police Cyrille LeBlanc, who turned the weapon over to Inspector Leo Laprade. It was determined that the gun was the same one used by Louis Pasakinski to kill Joe Markus.

In the item from The Gardner News, it was noted that the man from whom Pasakinski had stolen the gun in the first place had since died and, as a result, it couldn’t have been identified through him.

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Although the murder of Joe Markus was big news when it occurred back in 1927, it was an incident that all but faded from the memory of the average local citizen.

In fact, when the shocking murder of 16-year-old Patricia Joyce occurred in the city in July of 1965, it was reported to be the first murder to occur on the local scene in over 50 years. A sidebar story reported, “one other murder of note occurred in the mid-twenties, according to the memory of many Gardnerites, when a taxi driver was found slain.”

Little fanfare was made in the future years by those individuals directly impacted by the Markus murder.

Members of the Pasakinski family would alter their surname slightly to Pasakinskas in an attempt to distance themselves from the murderer. Tragedy would later befall Louis’s brother Alphonse Pasakinskas, who drowned in 1974 while fishing in the pond behind the Candlelight Cafe in Templeton.

The final link to the Markus murder case, Nellie Genis – who at the age of 7 witnessed the crime and was the trial’s star witness – lived her entire life in Gardner. She never married, worked as an inspector for Nichols & Stone Co. for 25 years, and died at the age of 83 in 2005.

And likely with her went the final earthly memory of the tragic tale of Gardner cab driver Joe Markus.

Comments and suggestions for The Gardner Scene can be sent to Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing to Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Road, Sandwich, MA 02563.

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